The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-02-25
WE SEE as WE ARE"
A Sermon Delivered sunday. February
9Th. 1887. In the Spring Garden
Unitarian Church. of PhiIadel-
pIsia. by Rev. William &. San
nett. of Chicago. Illinois.

pIaia. by Rev. William &. San
nett. of Chicago. Illinois.
blessed are your eyes, for they see,
said Jesus once, ''and Your cars, for they
hear, "--as if it were strange that eyes
should see and ears hear. It is strange if
they do not see, do not hear,-is apt to be
our thought. But then if eyes see how is
it that two pairs Of eyes look at the same
thing and see such very different things?
And where there Is but one fact, how is it
that after asking a dozen observers, what
is that fact?t you will not then have found
out the whole of it, if really eyes see?
The boy and the robin are both up in
the cherry-tree. The cherries are red and
ripe for both. The robin peeks away, and
thinks how good they are. The boy thinks
that, too; but through his head there
flashes memory of the leafless tree last
winter of the white blossoms that stayed
but week and then huttered away; of the
hard, green berries that were left TO slowly
grow into the crimson, juicy fruit; and,
with the memory, through his head there
drifts Il wonder how it all came to be.
How differently the two creatures, boy and
robin, look at the same fact.
The boy looks with his mother at the
night sky where the stars twinkle for
both. The boy wonders what they are,
and how they got there, up above the
world so high" The mother wonders,
too, as she tells him a dim story of great
globes peopling space, as the cherries peo-
pied his tree. What different thing the
night sky means for her!
There was IMAM, some eighteen centur-
les ago, going about the Galiee roads and
talking of his Father and of king
dom Of heaven soon to come upon the
earth. A few men and women looked at
him and said, half doubtngly, Chou art
our jew ish Christ Ninety nine ont of
every hundred who saw and heard him
said, "a new prophet, possibly" "a tray
cling Rabbit" "A wine-bibber!' "A friend
of Sinners "a blasphemer," "a man
with devil in him. 1t was a question
of fact; and the same look on that face,
and the same tone i'll the words, and the
same tenderness and passion of manner
were before their eyes to judge by,-and
what was the fact?
Once more: Here is universe around
us. And al OF rs, born into it, born
part of it, have to accept it as fact. But
what is this fact We accept? God, say
some Matter and force, say some. Mat
ter, force and mystery, say others. Or,
even if our eyes all see the ''God '-ask a
little farther and we find out that though
we all agree that God is one, yet we are
looking at very different Gods indeed.
We begin to believe Jesus, after all,
blessed are the eyes that see, and ears
that hear
Now, the explanation is simple enough,
but, like many things that we call simple,
marvelously rich in suggestion. "The
deep secret is the open secret" You can
put this one in five words, five syllabes,
that child, just beginning, could spell,-
We sec as we are.
TWO TRUTHS HINTED.
We see as we are. The words hint two
great truths. One is that it takes more
than eyes to make vision. Which, of
course, is true. Every new impression
Joins on to the whole network of previous
impressions, nterprets itself by them,
means much or means little TO us accord
ing to their amount. The difference be-
tween the brute and the man is hardly the
better organ, for the hawk high up above
the hilltop sights the mouse in the mead
ow grass the insect S eye often has hun
dred lenses to our one. The difference is
not in the better organ, but rather lies IN
this, -how much past consciousness has
eachp We sec, we hear, we feel, think,
WILL nothing without using all we are mp
to that moment; not only the store OF con-
scious knowledge that We have acquired
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